Klipsch drops Tweeter; Tweeter now sells hi-end JBL?

I was in Tweeter today and was checking out some new mirage speakers, and while talking to the salesman (he actually knew audio--wow!) he said Klipsch dropped their line from Tweeter to concentrate on their big-box retailers like Best Buy. I realized that he was right--there were no Klipschs in there anymore. Another formerly smallish/high quality company goes for the mass-market....and mediocre.....segment. I knew when Paul Klipsch passed away something like this would probably happen.

Anyway.......

What prompted me to talk to the salesman in the first place was seeing these JBLs in one of their demo rooms. Yikes! I finally get to hear them after years of just looking at them on the website. But I only had Beck's Guero dvd-audio with me, the Denon player didn't have its analog outs hooked up & Guero was purposely recorded with a rather grungy sound (& it does sound like that) so I'll have to go back with a better recording on CD. We did watch some of this documentary I brought for another purpose which has a great Dolby 5.1 track* but I don't like to audition speakers I've never heard before with a surround recording or a compressed format. The bass was impressive though and completely free of boominess. A B&K amp was powering everything, along with a JBL processor (supposedly made by Lexicon).

* the warning on the dvd's front cover about intense bass is not marketing b.s. While watching this film the phrase "horrified fascination" kept popping up in my head. It is very good--I've watched it many times--but it also scares the crap out of me & everyone that has watched it with me. The clarity of the images of those explosions can be startling & NOTHING like the fuzzy/grainy/washed out ones most people have seen.

The performance series, although a couple years old now, apparently kicks serious ass. Several long-time vintage JBL fans made the jump and they are described as a world class speaker. I think there was a magazine review done, and they are Stereofool best class rated, not sure if class A, B or C. I read that somewhere, can't find it now.

It's nice to see a company like JBL get back into it. They made some cheaper speakers that were good performers like the E50 / S38, but it seems the big floorstanders of late have been too expensive for the niche, and I'd call the cabinets too light weight. Talking E series here.

The SVA's from the 90's were built like a tank, the L3/5/7 series was excellent. There's little in common comparing those to what you find now in the mainstream lines.

Let's see. Two subs, $3600. Seven towers*, uh, mumble mumble, $11,900. That's only $15,500 to set myself up for 7.1 - the price of a decent car!

Maybe I'd better just hang on to my S38 "cheaper speaker" system for now!

* seven towers - I have decided that having a different drivers/crossovers for the center just isn't acceptable, no matter how closely matched to the towers. the sound of a person's voice should not change as they move to the side!

I think the biggest problem is JBL's failure to push these to market. The two people I have heard from who own these had to fight with 3 dealers, drive for hours, ship them in, etc. All for current product.

I'm pretty sure that since JBL is owned by such a huge corporation (Harman International) that the corporation's accounting department frowns on giving up $$$ to promote items that don't quickly bring in truck loads of money.

And some people wonder why I get worried when a small company is taken over by a large one, or when the small one decides to "expand its market".

You know John - I've actually seen the TiK in an audio store in Edmonton Alberta. Did a double-take when I saw the JBL logo, especially since I associated JBL mostly with the black boxes with ugly drivers

Didn't listen to them but they sure look neat ... plus for high end speakers I guess they aren't that obscenely expensive...

Yeah, I guess it depends on what your frame of reference is. I've heard $25K speakers, and I was impressed, but not $25K impressed... I saw $100K+ speakers, but didn't bother to listen to them, because even if they sounded like nothing I ever heard before, I still wouldn't be able to afford them anytime soon.